


Tastes Like Trauma

by itsfio



Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, General Bad Times, Implied Cannibalism, a character is implied to make herself throw up, also elumira and adda are around 15-16 here, oh boy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 20:47:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26693962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/itsfio/pseuds/itsfio
Summary: Elumira goes to a dinner with her crush, it doesn't go well.
Relationships: (kinda) - Relationship, Elumira Aramar/Adda





	Tastes Like Trauma

**Author's Note:**

> can finally post this lol. elumira trauma time

"It'll be good for you! All you do is go on those hunting trips, you need to live a little outside that, socialize some more!"

"I do more than go on hunting trips..."

"Ok then, what else do you do, Ellie?"

"I go to school...And sometimes I train with my dad or my brothers."

The other girl groans like Elumira has just proved her point. She's a modest height. Human, with long and wavy gold hair. Her eyes are a deep, rich brown like they were made of soil from the earth. Elumira finds herself looking away from those eyes, focusing on tanning the raccoon hide she had started on earlier. She thinks, knows, that if she looked at the other girl long enough she might embarrass herself.

"What do you do for fun? All you do is work or train or study!"

Elumira pauses.

"I like the hunting trips..."

The other girl, Adda, brings her palm up to her face and then crosses her arms in front of her. Elumira watches the motion from her periphery.

"This is what I mean. you need to get out more! Look, trust me, they won't care if you dont have much to say, most of them just like listening to themselves. Then once you get more comfortable you can talk more, y'know, open up! It'll be a good experience!"

Elumira grimaces. The experience Adda is talking about is a dinner. She'd invited Elumira to a dinner at her friends home, meaning it'd be her, Adda, Adda's friend, and her parents. She's...Not really the social type. The idea of having dinner with people she only knows vaguely, through Adda, doesn't appeal to her. Granted, she does have a point. Even her father had occasionally suggested that Elumira focus a little more on trying to make friends, that she wouldn't get in trouble for it. Elumira had said 'no thanks' then.

"I don't- I don't know. I don't know those people... Plus I've got a ton of stuff I need to do, schoolwork and helping around the house... That sort of thing."

"You have four brothers! They'll be fine without you for one evening! Not even the whole evening, you'll be back after dinner!"

Elumira frowns, considering it but clearly not happy. She looks down at the hide and focuses on tanning it as she thinks. Her thoughts are interrupted by a smaller hand gently placing itself on top of hers. She follows it with her eyes and ends up looking Adda in the eyes.

"I'd really appreciate it... I don't see you much outside of school, and it'd just be a stuffy dinner without you."

This gives her considerate pause. She feels her ear twitch a little, shy.

"I thought you were going to your friends house for the dinner... Won't she be there?"

"She will, she's just... I don't know, she's kind of stuck up. We're mostly friends cause our parents are."

She seems sad. Elumira looks at her and sighs, resigned to the fact that, yes, she is going to do this just because she wants her crus- friend to not be sad.

"Alright I... I'll try to be there."

Adda immediately shifts from quiet sadness to exuberant joy, throwing her arms around the taller girl's shoulders in a hug.

"Thank you! You won't regret it! You'll have a good time, I promise."

Elumira chuckles nervously. 

"Yeah, yeah, you're probably right."

"I'm definitely right."

\--

The rest of the day passes in something of a blur. After she finishes tanning the hide, she comes inside and talks to her dad about her plans for tonight, she's not sure where her mom currently is, but it's not a terribly new feeling. She's probably just in her room, or something. Her father, meanwhile, seems very proud of her. He smiles and laughs. 

"I'm glad to see you socializing, dear!"

"Yeah I- yeah... I think it'll do me some good."

Her father seems to agree. Letting her go to the dinner with no issue, as long as she's back when it's time for her to sleep.  
Elumira dresses a little nicely for the occasion. She doesn't have much, if any, fancy clothing. It's not really a need for her, but she figures she should make a good impression, so she finds herself in one of her cleaner tunics. When the time comes, she says bye to her dad and heads off for Adda's friends home, they'll meet there.

\--

The house is quite fancy, for Antabore at least. In the grand scheme of things it's really not much, but it's nicer than Elumira's house and likely one of the nicer in the city. There aren't really people here that are filthy rich or dirt broke, but some people are still richer than others and sometimes it shows.

Elumira is sat at the dinner table, next to Adda and just across from her friends mother. They're all having a somewhat lively conversation while her friends father is in the kitchen, finishing up cooking. Elumira, still feeling shy, busies herself with the table itself, or looking at it, rather. It's a nice, dark wood. Polished well and kept free of most scratching. 

"What about you, Ms. Aramar?"

Elumira looks up, embarrassed she hadn't been paying much attention.

"I'm sorry?"

The friend's mother chuckles politely.

"What do you think about those rumors, that Antabore is some... Barbaric city of butchers? Personally, I think it's rubbish, all of it. We here are proud of our traditions, proud of our culture! Just because it's slightly less refined than that of Regis doesn't mean we're animals."

Elumira nods along. She actually had heard rather... Unsettling rumors about Antabore. At best, that it was a city of ragamuffins and barbarians, unrefined and dirty. At worst, though...

The voice of the friend's father rings from the kitchen.

"Dinners ready!"

He walks out, holding a couple plates with quite a bit of skill, and placing them before everyone at the table, before putting a plate down at an empty space and taking the seat for himself. It's some type of meat, clearly cooked with skill but Elumira has a hard time recognizing the actual meat. The vegetables are easy, there's some potatoes and peppers and asparagus, it's just the meat that eludes her. It doesn't smell like any other meat she's had before. Actually, she can barely smell the meat at all, everything else drowns it out and she suspects that holding the plate to her nose and taking a big sniff would be seen as... Impolite.

The friend's family digs in, Adda seems to be saying a quick prayer before eating, but Elumira pauses, trying to figure out the mystery of the dinner. For some reason, she has a very, very bad feeling in the deepest part of her gut. Her apprehension must be a little visible, because the father speaks up.

"Aren't you hungry?"

"U-um... Sorta. Hey, what kind of meat is this?" She does her best to phrase it with curiosity instead of fear. The talk of those rumors has her on edge. The father hums.

"It's veal." He says, there's a sense of finality to his words that Elumira doesn't challenge, and goes back to eating.

It's not veal. She isn't an idiot, she knows what veal looks like, she's even cooked it before. This is not veal.

Adda has started to eat as well, and is looking at Elumira like she's being impolite. Nervously, Elumira eats the potatoes and some of the peppers. She eats slowly and in small quantities. She keeps looking at the meat on the plate in front of her, she's certain she's never seen it before, and now that she's started removing some of the vegetables, she can get a very faint whiff of it. The smell is off putting and makes her feel a little woozy.

She racks her brain, trying to think. Surely it's not what she thinks it is, right? Surely it's just some rare animal not from around here. They're one of the richer families in Antabore, so they can afford it. She glances at the meat again and doesn't believe it for a second. Come to think of it, she swears she remembers hearing some of those rumors of... Of cannibalism thrown at this friend and her parents, hushed whispers in school hallways, and if they're truly so defensive of Antabore's traditions and culture...

"Excuse me? Where is your bathroom?"

\-- 

She spends a good two or so minutes just dry heaving, quietly, of course. She shakes and shudders, clinging to the toilet bowl.

'I didn't eat it, I didn't eat it. I'm not going to eat it.' She keeps reminding herself. When she made her way to the bathroom, she thought it was just disgust she had been feeling, but now she finds herself in the middle of a panic attack. She just wants to go home, she should've just said 'No, I'm sorry, I promised I'd be home tonight.' A lie, but at least she wouldn't be here.

She gets a hold of herself rather quickly, and makes her escape plan. She shoves her fingers down her throat and braces herself.  
\-- 

When she comes back out, looking sick, like she just vomited, asking if she could be excused early, the friends parents seem troubled, Adda even more so. Elumira passes it off as a stomach bug, says her brother had it first and now she seems to have caught it. So she better go to avoid getting everyone else sick. Of course, they all agree.

Adda seems like she wants to say something, but Elumira pushes past. Giving a rushed goodbye before hurrying home. Her father is sitting in a chair, reading, and seems surprised to see her so soon. Elumira says the family had some urgent matter come up last second, so she had to leave early. He seems sad at the loss of a chance for his daughter to socialize, but accepts it.

"Did you get to eat? I can make you something if you like."

"N-no, I'm not- I'm not hungry. no. I think I'm just gonna go to bed."

He frowns but nods.

"Alright. Goodnight, Elumira."

"Goodnight, dad."

With that, Elumira turns and gets to her room with some haste, closing the door behind her. 

She lays down on the bed and smushes her face against the pillow so her father can't hear her as she weeps.


End file.
